The Insiders (The Insiders Trilogy 1)

“I wasn’t supposed to be a problem?” I needed a drink. Right? Maybe not. Maybe I needed to have as much of my faculties as possible for this conversation, because I was feeling it wasn’t going to go well.

“No.” She stopped next to me, turning to take in the entire backyard behind us. She lifted her head, drawing in a good breath of air, and her eyes closed for a moment. Opening them, her head held high, she turned to face me. Her side rested just so slightly against the railing behind us. Her lips tugged up, that small grin not inviting at all, and she moved even closer, dropping her voice even though no one was near enough to overhear. “Peter and I have had problems since the beginning.”

I relaxed, slightly.

She was confiding in me. Opening up. That was a good sign, right?

But my gut was still tightening up, and my instincts were telling me to get away from her. Instead, I reached for the railing and held on, my hands wrapping around it.

A soft laugh from her, and she dipped her head down. “Peter’s a cheater. Always has been, even with his first wife. Colleen wasn’t even that bad of a wife, but it didn’t matter to your father. He was an up-and-coming tech genius. Everyone in Silicon Valley wanted a part of him. Then his mother back in Saint Louis fell ill and, well, you know what happened after that. He and Colleen hadn’t ended things, but it was in the works. It was a matter of time.”

She stopped, a hard glint coming back to her eyes. Her mouth pursed together, pinching.

A rougher note fused with her tone. “Peter loved his mother. It devastated him when she took her last turn for the worse, and he wanted to spend more time with her. Said he’d just be out there for the time being, that nothing would change. He was going to leave Colleen.”

Her words ground together, biting with disdain.

“I’m telling you this so you’re aware your mother wasn’t special. You weren’t special.”

I was almost captivated, in a horrifying way.

“No one worked with Peter until I came into his life.”

I couldn’t make myself pull away, and I only wanted to hear what else she had to say. There was a point. She was getting to it. The charitable Quinn was not beside me tonight. She was an altogether different sort of animal.

Bitterness. She was filled with that emotion. And it spilled out as she kept going, a cruelness peeking out over her face, pulling all of her features into a distorted twist. I’d never seen that on another human being. It was fascinating.

“My father was indebted to Calhoun, but he wasn’t the reason I seduced Peter—though seduce is a broad term for Peter. I looked at him, lowered my shirt a little, and promised him he could take my ass.”

So not needed. So not.

Wait.

“My father was indebted to Calhoun…”

Seduce.

Then a different voice, a memory. “Quinn knows Kash’s family…”

Off. This felt off. And wrong.

Where was Kash?

I turned, looking for him, frowning. He was heading our way, but Victoria was there. Of course. Fucking cosmic timing, right? I expected him to pass her by, ignore, but no. That wasn’t happening. She touched his arm.

He was bending his head toward her.

A concerned look on his face, but his eyes lifted. He looked at me.

She said something more, tugging on his sleeve, and he looked back at her.

What was she doing? What was he doing?

I was stung.

This wasn’t normal Kash. He ignored her. He snapped at her. That was what he’d done before now. But then I flashed back to my speech. I had told him how it was going to be. I was declaring my feelings, saying he had to talk to me.

A stab of doubt pierced me. Had I been wrong to do that?

With horror, in slow motion, I saw him give me a hardened look before he turned and followed her.

He followed her.

What the hell?

I started to go after them, but Quinn got in front of me. She blocked me, and her mouth was moving. She was still speaking.

What was she saying?

She kept on. “He was only too eager. It wasn’t hard work to ensnare Peter, make him fall in love with me, or at least give him all the promises that he wanted. Infidelity was part of our agreement. I was fine with him being with other women. It was what I could offer that Colleen couldn’t. Your father had never curbed his need for women, still hasn’t, though his focus has been more singular lately.”

What was going on here?

Why was Quinn coming to me, telling me all this? Why now? Or—a lump was forming in my stomach—why here?

Because she felt safe.

No. I dismissed that thought, though it came to me in a whisper, from the back of my mind. That made no sense. None of this was making sense.